Home made fish food.

Cozwey

Cozwey

Go Canada!!!!
I am going to attempt to create our own food mix for my reef tanks.
I have the following items available.

Vita Chem 4 oz
Frozen Brine Shrimp 8 oz
Frozen Mysis Shrimp 16 oz
Nori We have a lot.
Frozen Cyclop- eeze 4 oz
Rapashy Veggie and meat mixes both
Algae pellets
Fresh roe.

I have read much on this subject and I have a few questions that I thought my helpful friends at RC could help me with.

I intend to rinse the frozen shrimp and Cyclop-eeze, however I am concerned that this could lead to spoiling the food if I have it thawed and then refreeze it. Thoughts on this?

Is there something from this list I should NOT add?

My plan is to blend the ingredients together and then pour it into light fixture grating to freeze it into cubes.
 
You won't need to rinse the Cyclop-Eeze.

I do pretty much what you're doing and haven't had any issues with spoiling. My mixture is just a little different:

-Cyclop-Eeze
-Larry's Reef Frenzy
-Rogger's Reef Food
-Mysis
-Brine
-Selcon

I thaw it all out, mix it all together, add some RO/DI and freeze into little single portion cubes. They make feeding really easy because I don't have to do all the thawing and mixing every day.

Take out a cube, thaw in tank water and feed.
 
Thanks for the advice. The Rapashy adds a different element. It is a powder that is mixed with boiling water and then turns into a gel which then finally becomes solid. I am pouring this over the shrimp clop mixture. also I have added Nori, liquid garlic, and Vita-chem.
It is currently cooling in the fridge.


<-------hoping for the best.
 
Yes I think we will purchase food from the grocery next time. I am told liver or heart work well. Oysters shrimp and scallops as well.
 
This is my recipe, that I found posted somewhere and is not really mine but I use it and the fish love it.

All the seafood are purchased the morning of making the reef food to ensure freshness.


Ingredients:

Fresh seafood ingredients (clockwise from top-left):

"¢ Mussels (1lb)
"¢ Atlantic Cod (1/2lb)
"¢ Wild caught shrimp (1lb) -bulk of food, good protein-to-waste ratio
"¢ Littleneck Clams (8 pieces)
"¢ Oysters (5 pieces)
"¢ Squid body and tentacles (1/2lb)
"¢ Bay Scallops (1/2lb) - good protein-to-waste ratio

Frozen food:

"¢ Plankton
"¢ Nutramar Ova (100% prawn roe) - very highly rated, so good that even Mandarins eat them (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZEGItO4zZU)
"¢ PE Mysis Shrimp

Dried food:

"¢ Brown, Red and Green Seaweed (unroasted)
"¢ Cyclopeeze

Vitamins:

"¢ Vita-Chem
"¢ Kent Marine Garlic Xtreme
"¢ Selcon Concentrate

The seafood are rinsed thoroughly and allowed to soak in RO/DI water for 2hours in the fridge, before re-rinsing again. Seafood from supermarkets are often sprayed with phosphates to make it look fresh for longer, and thorough rinsing and soaking is required to get rid of most of it.

Rinsed, and soaked in RO/DI water:


Sitting in the fridge for 2 hours while soaking:


A dedicated "reef-only" food processor for blending the food:


The seafood is chopped up slightly...


then mixed together and separated into three different batches, each of which will be blended for varying duration to allow for different food sizes so as to feed a wide range of reef habitants (corals, small fishes, larger fishes).


Resulting mix:


The entire pack of plankton, mysis shrimp and Nutramar Ova is allowed to thaw slightly and then blended:


Adding everything together! 2 sheets of brown, red and green nori are hand-crushed and added to the mix. Poured in 1/2 bottle of Selcon, 1/2 bottle of Vita-chem and an entire bottle of garlic extract. Stirred well to ensure even mixture:


Allowed to sit in the fridge for another 2 hours to allow the mixture/nori to soak in the nutrients:


Spread across mini ice-cube trays and freezed. Each of these tray makes 90 cubes, with each cube measuring 1/2" on all sides:


I fed my tank that night with a small chunk, and EVERYTHING went crazy. The feeding frenzy was extremely satisfying to watch. All in all, the experience is extremely rewarding from the idea of knowing exactly what you are feeding your tank. My tank is only 28 gallons, and I more than likely make too much reef food. Will definitely do this again though, once I figured out how to calm my wife down on the smell in the kitchen.
 
If you get store bought shrimp make sure it is wild caught and not farmed. Farmed shrimp will be loaded with phosphates and will send your skimmer into overdrive.
 
I wish I had a fish market near me. Most places in my area don't carry this type of seafood that I know of.
 
Google maps!! I bet there are some fish markets near you.

I have been lazy with my feeding.. This is officially my plan for tomorrow night!! I did this before but trashed it when I moved and just haven't hade tank ambition until this week when I got some new inhabitants.
 
glmule said:
I wish I had a fish market near me. Most places in my area don't carry this type of seafood that I know of.
Click to expand...

Most major chains should carry most items. Little neck clam are the hardest for me to find usually - I skip them if not available. I usually get frozen squid and if raw oysters aren't available I will get canned or jarred fresh (in a refrigerated section).
 
I agree and like the recipe however I am dropping all garlic for my plans based on what I read recently.
 
The use of garlic as a supplement is a debated subject in this hobby, as are a lot of different practices. Some say it's good for the fish and others argue it causes issues. The best bet is to do some research and draw your own conclusion.
 
I do pretty much the same recipe Gary and usually add some kind of binders like flake food.
When the whole mash has been grinded to a pulp, I dump it onto a thin plastic sheet like handiwrap, shape it into a big round tube and freeze it. Then I just grate it into the tank as needed. Really easy.
 
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